March 8, 2021

On Secondary Atomization and Blockage of Surrogate Cough Droplets in Single- and Multilayer Face Masks

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

Keywords (Tags): masks, non-pharm interventions

• Using high-speed imaging and physics-based analyses, large (> 250 μm) simulated cough droplets were shown to penetrate single- or double-layer mask materials to a significant extent. The authors suggest that expelled droplets may atomize into smaller (< 100 μm) droplets that could remain airborne for longer periods, potentially impacting mask efficacy. For a droplet of initial diameter 620 μm, a single layer mask restricted only 30% of the initial droplet volume, compared to 92% with a double-layered mask. The authors suggest that in the absence of N95 masks being made available to the public, masks with three layers could block droplet spread.

Sharma et al. (Mar 5, 2021). On Secondary Atomization and Blockage of Surrogate Cough Droplets in Single- and Multilayer Face Masks. Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf0452